NEWS AND NOTES
March 1, 2013
MAXXAM GOLD CUP RACING FESTIVAL
The $100,000 Maxxam Gold Cup is the marquee race of this Saturday’s card at Sam Houston Race Park, but three additional stakes will run as part of the Maxxam Gold Cup Racing Festival: the $50,000 Texas Heritage Stakes, the $50,000 Jersey Lilly and $50,000 Sam Houston Sprint Cup. Each race has drawn competitive fields with compelling matchups of multiple-stakes winners and quality horses on the comeback trail for their connections.
A field of eight, including Unlatch, Dreaming Blue, Cajun Don, Sabercat, Hurricane Ike, Twinspired, Ocean Seven and Unstoppable U will compete in the mile and one-eighth handicap for older horses. Sabercat, who has close to $800,000 in career earnings, and Hurricane Ike with earnings of $578,070 for 28 career starts, have been named early favorites.
Worldventurer, who is undefeated at SHRP this year, and Departing, who is making only his third start after winning his first two outings, will be dueling in the Texas Heritage Stakes at one mile on the main track, along with Real Appeal Deal, Whiskey Bravo, Holiday Mischief, Seeking Payday, Furious Candy and Mula Run.
Artemus Kitten, a 5-year-old daughter of Kitten’s Joy, will return to Sam Houston Race Park to try for a victory in the mile and 1/16 Jersey Lilly turf stakes after running second in the 2012 edition. She will face competition from Distorted Legacy, a graded stakes-placed 6-year-old mare, who has earned $378,836, but will be seeking her first turf victory. Making her sixth career turf start is Texas-bred Vilao, who ran impressively to win the $50,000 San Jacinto Stakes on January 18 and was second in the $50,000 Tomball Stakes. Completing the field are Firehouse Red, World Cup, Forgotten People, Allure, Moon Struck Nemi, Guanabara Gal and Miss Kinderhook.
The Sam Houston Sprint Cup will see Texas-bred stakes winners Gold Element and Solar Charge battle it out at six furlongs over the main track, along with Su Casa G Casa, Flat Black, Bind, Flashpoint and Hamiltonian.
Sam Houston Race Park will offer an All Stakes Pick 4 encompassing these four stakes, and post time for the first of the four stakes, which will run as the sixth race, is 8:46 p.m. (CT).
RACE DATES ADJUSTMENTS FOR FINAL TWO WEEKS OF THOROUGHBRED MEET AT SHRP
In a letter to the Texas Racing Commission (TRC), Sam Houston Race Park officials requested that the Sunday, March 10 and March 17 live dates be moved to Monday, March 11 and March 18, citing statistics indicating that since the beginning of the 2013 Thoroughbred race meet, handle on Mondays has outperformed Sundays. A letter on behalf of the TTA Board of Directors has been submitted to the TRC voicing support for the changes.
COMMITMENT TO STAND IN TEXAS
Commitment, a son of Relaunch who sold for $540,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, has been relocated to stand in Texas after previously standing in California. He will stand for a $750 fee at STS Farm in Yantis, Texas, as the property of Charles Spinks.
Commitment, who was unraced, is out of the winning and stakes-placed El Gran Senor mare Escrow Agent, who is the dam of several notable runners, including Florida Derby (G1) winner Vicar, by Wild Again. She is also the dam of $407,481-earner Weston Field, Grade 3-placed Mama Dean and stakes winner Sheepscot.
AMERICA’S BEST RACING TOUR BEGINS IN AUSTIN, TEXAS
Six recent college graduates, known as ABRV ambassadors, have been recruited to travel around the country in a 45-foot-long bus to promote interest in the lifestyle and competition of Thoroughbred racing’s premier events. ABRV will visit “high-traffic areas and strategic locations within each destination city, seeking to attract a younger audience to horse racing,” according to a release.
According to The Jockey Club, the America’s Best Racing tour will begin the week of March 11 at the South by Southwest Festival, a 10-day showcase for original music, independent films, and emerging technologies that usually attracts about 20,000 people to Austin.
The tour will also make stops in Miami, Lexington, Louisville, Baltimore, and New York in conjunction with the Triple Crown and related prep season. Later in the year it visits Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; Chicago; Oceanport, N.J.; San Diego; and Los Angeles for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
ADDITIONAL CHANGES TO PERMISSIBLE MEDICATION LEVELS
In response to the proposed changes to ARCI’s list of approved therapeutics as recommended by ARCI’s Task Force on Medication Science, the Texas Racing Commission has announced the following changes to its list of approved therapeutic medications:
Effective March 28, 2013, clenbuterol will be permitted at a maximum concentration of 140 pg/ml in urine, and the suggested withdrawal time has increased from 96 hours to 14 days.
Effective September 13, 2013, betamethasone will be permitted at a maximum concentration of 10 pg/ml in plasma or serum and the suggested withdrawal time has increased from 96 hours to 7 days.
In addition, the RMTC’s suggested withdrawal time for triamcinilone acetonide has increased to 7 days, and the suggested withdrawal time for methylprednisolone has increased to 21 days.
The trainer remains the absolute insurer that the resulting concentration levels will not exceed the maximum permissible concentration levels.
Except as otherwise indicated above, the revised list is effective immediately. Any pending drug positives for medications on this list will be reevaluated in light of the changes.
A complete list in both English and Spanish may be found at:
http://www.txrc.state.tx.us/agency/news/postings/02262013-Memo_and_Additional%20Changes-Permissible_Medication_Levels.pdf
NOTES… The Jockey Club has amended Rule 18 of the Principal Rules and Requirements of The American Stud Book from “Sold Without Pedigree” to “Sold as Retired from Racing” so an owner can retire a Thoroughbred from racing without affecting its breeding privileges…The February issue of the Southern Racehorse Express online newsletter is now available at www.southernracehorse.com…If you have foal photos to share, please email them to maryr@texasthoroughbred.com…We offer our condolences to the family of TTA member Don Eberts who passed away this week; a memorial service will be held at 2:00 P M Saturday, March 2 at the Callaway-Allee Memorial Chapel at Callaway Funeral Home in Crockett, Texas.